Sailboat rigging



Dec. 23, 1969 H. E. BRETT SAILBQAT RIGGING Filed Sept. l7, l9683,485,197 SAILBOAT RIGGING Harry E. Brett, 51 E. 211th St., Euclid, Ohio44123 Filed Sept. 17, 1968, Ser. No. 760,289 Int. Cl. B6311 9/08 U.S.Cl. 114102 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A combination of wincheson the deck of a sailboat for handling the halyards associated with theraising and lowering of sails, spinnaker poles and struts; the halyardsrunning along the deck to sheaves on a collar about the mast at aposition adjacent the deck and thence upward through openings in themast to the interior thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention My invention relatesto the running rigging of sailboats and more particularly to acombination of sheaves and winches about a lower portion of the mast andthe deck of a sailboat for handling the sail-raising and spinnaker polesupport halyards thereof.

Related prior sailboat rigging In all but the smallest size sailboats,the lower runs of the sail-raising and spinnaker pole support halyardsextend along the sides of the lower portion of the mast and are handledby means of winches mounted upon the masts at a convenient height abovethe deck. Such cornbinations of rigging are entirely practical but areobjectionable because the weight of the winches and the wind resistancethereof is such a great distance above the water level as to appreciablyeffect the balance and trim of the sailboat. Also, the concentration ofhalyards and winches, particularly in sailboats with complex sailrigging, is such as to make it impossible to have all halyards andtopping lifts at convenient positions and suitably separated to avoidconfusion and permit quick handling. Ready manipulation of selected andmultiple halyards and winches is often paramount to the proper raising,lowering and adjustment of sails during maneuvering of the sailboat andmay result in loss of a race or serious to total loss of the sailboat ifimproperly performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One object of my invention is to provide asailboat rigging having the halyard winches mounted away from the mastat positions both closer to the waterline of the sailboat and moreconveniently than heretofore. In accord with this object, the winchesare mounted on the deck at spaced positions about the mast and thehalyards associated therewith are directed to the winches by sheavesmounted upon a portion of the mast immediately above the surface of thedeck.

Another object of my invention is to provide rigging for a sailboathaving a hollow mast, wherein the rigging provides for the sail raisinghalyards to run inside the mast and to be handled by winches located onthe deck in the immediate area of the mast. Such combinations of riggingpresent the problem of allowing the halyards to pass through openings inthe mast without producing an excessively weakened area therein. Thisobject is attained by passing the halyards through vertically spacedopenings in the mast at some distance above the level of the deck of thesailboat and redirecting the halyards to the winches by sheaves mountedon the mast just above the level of the deck.

hired States Patent 0 lit ill

ICC

The difficulties and advantages of reaching these objectives is bestunderstood when it is realized that the running rigging related to theinvention comprises 4 to 7 or more halyards for raising the varioussails, spinnaker poles and other mast supported rigging of the sailboat.Other advantages result from the quicker and better handling of thehalyards of the sailboat by the crew because of the separated and moreconvenient arrangement of the halyards and winches about the deck orroof of the cabin near the mast.

DESCRIPTION OF VIEWS IN DRAWING Still further advantages and features ofthe running rigging of my invention will appear in the more detaileddescription which follows of the sailboat shown in the accompanyingdrawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view of the forward portion of asailboat having a main mast projecting thereabove, a deck and therunning rigging including a mainsail, a jibsail and the sail raisingmeans of my invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the deck area of the sailboat immediate to andfrom a section through the lower part of the mast and comprising therunning rigging of my invention.

And FIG. 3 is a vertical section through a lowermost portion of the mastand the immediate deck area of a sailboat, the section being adjacent toone of the winches and a sheave for handling the mainsail halyard inaccord with my invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The sailboat illustrated in thedrawing comprises a hull 1 having a deck 2 over the forward portionthereof and a main mast 3 extending upward above the deck 2 for supportof the mainsail 4 and jibsail 5. The many parts of the standing riggingfor the mast 3 is herein represented only by the forestay 6 and thebackstay 7 extending from the top of the mast 3 to the stemhead 8 andthe stern (not shown), respectively. The running gear of the sailboatcomprises the halyard 9 shown attached to the top of the mainsail 4 nearthe mast 3 and running upward over a sheave (not shown) in the upperpart of the mast 3 and thence through an upper opening 10 therein anddownward in a conventional manner. The continuing portion of the halyard9 passes downward through the hollow interior of the mast 3 to a loweropening 11 opposite the starboard winch 12. As shown in FIG. 3, thishalyard 9 emerges from the hollow interior of the mast 3 through thelower opening 11 without interference because of the relatively longvertical extent thereof and passes around the sheave 13 and thence in anear horizontal direction to the winch 12. The sheave 13 is mounted forrotation about a pin 14 extending between flanges of a block 15, inturn, mounted upon a vertical pin 16 extending between top and bottomflanges 17 and 18 respectively of a collar 19 surrounding and firmlyattached to a near-deck lower portion of the mast 3. The block 15 isfree to swivel about the pin 16 in a manner prescribed by the fall ofthe halyard 9 between the lower opening 11 in mast 3 and the winch 12.The mainsail 4 is also attached at the forward edge to a track (notshown) extending almost the full length of the mast 3 and is fastened atthe foot to a boom 20 extending sternward from a gooseneck attachment(not shown) on the mast 3.

The halyard 21 for lifting and control of the jibsail 5 passes upwardover a sheave (not shown) and thence through an upper opening (notshown) in the mast 3 and downward through the hollow interior thereof(in much the same manner as halyard 9). The halyard 21 emerges from theinterior of the mast 3 through a lower 3 opening 22 (shown in dot-dash)in FIG. 3 at a greater distance above the deck 2 than the opening 11 forthe mainsail halyard 9 and passes around a second sheave 23 on a blockattached to the collar 19 before running in a near horizontal directionto a winch 24 attached to the port side of the deck 2. Both the mainsailwinch 12 and the jibsail winch 24 are mounted on tapered blocks 25directly attached to the deck 2 so that the vertical axes of the winchesare tilted from the perpendicular and the near horizontal runs of thehalyards 9 and 21, respectively, feed properly thereto.

Two other halyards 26 and 27 (FIGS. 2 and 3) comprise the runningrigging of the sailboat shown, although the spinnaker and the spinnakerpole, respectively, associated therewith and normally used in sailingare not shown in the drawing. The spinnaker halyard 26 is, during noneuse, attached to a fitting (not shown) at the bow and runs upward to asheave on the head of the mast 3, through an upper opening therein andthence downward inside the mast 3 and outward through a lower opening 29(FIG. 3). The further extent of the spinnaker halyard 26 passes under athird sheave 30 (FIG. 2) on the collar 19, in the manner the mainsailhalyard 9 passes under the sheave 13, and thence passes to the winch 31on a further forward part of the starboard side of the deck 2. Thespinnaker pole halyard (topping lift) 27 is attached to a fitting (notshown) on the lower portion of the mast 3 when not in use and extendsupward over a sheave (not shown) and through an upper opening (notshown) in the mast to the interior thereof. The downward extent of thespinnaker pole halyard 27 emerges from the lower opening 33 (FIG. 3) andextends under the sheave 34 (FIG. 2) and thence generally in ahorizontal direction to the winch 35 on the forward port side of thedeck 2.

OPERATION Operation of the running rigging of my invention is effectedin the same manner as prior running rigging by wrapping turns of thehalyards about the winches provided for specific halyards and by themanual rotation of the winch by a hand crank 36 (FIG. 3) readilyattached thereto. The normal ratchet and pawl stop (not shown) and brake(not shown) are also included in the winch to permit the halyards to beplayed out at will so as to eifect the lowering and the adjustment ofthe sails.

For instance, the mainsail 4 is raised by wrapping the lower free end ofthe halyard 9 about the winch 12 and then, after attachment of the crankin the normal manner, manually swinging the crank 36 about the center ofthe winch 12 so that the halyard 9 is pulled onto the drum thereof. Theexcess halyard9 not required to maintain the purchase on the winch 12can be laid off in the usual manner. The mainsail 4 is held in place bysetting the pawl and ratchet or other stop of the Winch 12 so that thehalyard 9 is not allowed to run back around the drum thereof. Themainsail 4 can be lowered by allowing the halyard 9 to run back aboutthe drum under control of a manual drag on the free end of the halyard 9after several turns of the halyard 9 have been removed from the drum.Also, the halyard 9 can be played out in a manner to lower the mainsail4 by momentarily releasing the ratchet and pawl stop (not shown) and themanual manipulation of the brake (not shown) in association with thewinch 12. The distribution of the weight afforded by locating winch 12on the deck contributes to the better trim of the sailboat as thisweight is closer to the waterline of the sailboat than in priorinstances where the Winch was mounted on the mast 3. A single winch 12may weight from 5 to pounds and accordingly is a major contributor tostability. The windage of winch 12 is also obviously less than if it ismounted on the mast 3.

The handling of the halyards 21, 26 and 27 to raise and adjust thejibsail 5, the spinnaker and the spinnaker pole, respectively, can beperformed in the same manner as described in connection with the halyard9 and the mainsail 4. Although all four halyards 9, 21, 26 and 27 of thesailboat shown in the drawing run for the majority of their verticalextent inside the mast 3, the running rigging of my invention is equallyadaptable to sailboats having halyards extending down outside a solid oreven hollow mast thence running below the sheaves 13, 23, 30 and 34respectively, on the collar 19. Also, my running rigging is equallyapplicable to sailboats having both more complex and larger sails andhalyard combinations as the number of sheaves located about the deckarea of the mast and the winches distributed about the mast inaccordance with the teachings of my invention are not limited and couldbe more or less than that shown. Since in some sailboats the area aroundthe base of the mast is the roof of a cabin thereof, I wish it to beunderstood such a roof area is a deck area within the meaning of myinvention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. A running rigging for a sailboat having a deck and mast extendingupward therefrom comprising; sails, halyards running alongside the mastimmediately above the level of the deck for raising and lowering thesails, winches mounted on the deck at spaced locations about the mastfor pulling in and releasing the halyards, and sheaves mounted on themast immediately above the deck for redirecting a lower extent of thehalyards in substantially a horizontal direction to respective winches.

2. A running rigging as set forth in claim 1 wherein; the mast has aflange extending horizontally from the lower part adjacent the deck, thesheaves are mounted in blocks, and the blocks are attached to the flangeon the mast by vertical pins allowing the blocks and sheaves to swinghorizontally and therefore fall into alignment with the horizontalextent of the halyards.

'3. A running rigging as set forth in claim 1 wherein; a collarsurrounds and is attached to the mast immediately above thedeck and thesheaves are mounted on the collar.

4. A running rigging as set forth in claim 1 wherein; a collar surroundsand is attached to the mast immediately above the deck and has spacedupper and lower flanges extending therefrom, the sheaves are mounted forrotation about horizontal pins in blocks, the blocks are located aboutthe mast and between the flanges of the collar and vertically extendingpins pass through the flanges of the collar and respective blocks sothat the blocks and sheaves are free to swing into the fall of thehorizontal extent of the respective halyards.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS TRYGVE M. BLIX, Primary ExaminerUS. Cl. X.R. 114-89

